About TaxSelect℠

As the largest 1098-T tax form processor in the country, Heartland ECSI’s Tax Document Solutions are designed to work in accordance with the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (TRA-97), which requires all eligible educational institutions to send their students a 1098-T Tax Form to report amounts billed (or paid) for qualified tuition, related expenses, scholarships, grants, etc., by January 31st each year.

And for those schools that have already outsourced their 1098-Ts, many are concerned about the financial liabilities related to IRS Penalty Notice 972CG for missing or incorrect Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs) and that they might be paying too much for the services that they’re actually receiving.

As a Heartland ECSI TaxSelect client, we’ll make 1098-T season simple for you and your staff by providing a stress-free, turn-key, implementation process that includes the following:

√ A dedicated TaxSelect Conversion Coordinator to walk you through the entire process.

Standard TaxSelect Time Line

October
In an effort to save a few trees (and your school money), Heartland ECSI will provide you with an email template that you can send to your students encouraging them to “opt-in” to receive their 1098-T Forms electronically. At this time, we will also mail our Postage Payment Invoice to our clients for the upcoming tax season. This invoice represents approximately half the cost of our 1098-T TaxSelect Services (i.e. cost of U.S. postage). We’ll also provide you with the IRS’ instructions for 1098-E and 1098-T for your review and we’ll monitor any regulatory changes and make the appropriate changes to help keep you in compliance with TRA-97 Regulations. And, if you ‘re like most schools that are also utilizing our SSN and Name Validation Service to help reduce and/or eliminate future IRS Penalty Notices for missing or incorrect TIN/SSNs, we’ll ask for your SSN Input Data File so that we can quickly provide you with your SSN Response Data for Student Information System demographic information updates.

November & December
During this time, Heartland ECSI’s tax data file testing period is open for business, which means that you can provide us with your test data file and we’ll process your file and post the results on-line for your review and approval.

January
This is the time period for submitting your live 1098-T data production file. Upon receipt, Heartland ECSI will process your production file and post your results on the web for your final review and approval. We’ll also send you an electronic document to request your signature of approval prior to mailing out your original tax document forms. Upon receipt of your approval, we’ll mail your 1098-T forms within 3 business days to help keep you in compliance with IRS regulations.

January 31
This is the IRS deadline for mailing all 1098-T Tax Forms. At this time, we’ll also provide you with your final 1098-T invoice, which will include the remainder of your invoice for the current tax season.

February & March
This is the time frame for corrections, additions or deletions to your 1098-T Tax Forms. To help make life easier, ECSI provides functionality through our “Edit Tax Docs” feature that allows you to create, edit, delete and correct a tax form prior to our submission of your final, electronic 1098-T file to the IRS.

March 31
This is the IRS deadline for e-Filing the final production file on the IRS Website (corrections included). If applicable, all corrections to the final production file (after March 31st) will be submitted to the IRS on a monthly basis for the current tax year

SSN and Name Validation

In September 2013, thousands of colleges and universities across the country received IRS Notice 972CG proposing penalties for missing or incorrect taxpayer identification numbers (TINs) on Form 1098-T.

IRS Tax Notice 972CG proposed penalties of $100 for each tax document sent to the IRS with a missing or incorrect TIN. The maximum penalty can reach $1,500,000 per year or $500,000 for organizations with average annual gross
receipts of $5 million or less.

Unfortunately, unlike other information return filers such as banks or employers who use IRS-approved TIN matching services to verify TINs reported on tax documents, colleges and universities are not permitted to use the Social Security.

Administration's TIN matching service to validate TINs reported on their 1098-T tax forms. This means that schools are responsible for manually validating each student's TIN implementing both time-consuming and cumbersome W-9 collection processes.

Service.

Heartland ECSI prides itself in outstanding customer service and performance for its partners. It’s more than just fixing a problem; it is prompt responses, consistent communication, quality information, and a focus on providing a superior customer experience each and every time.